Diese Last ist schwerer als ich halten kann

In the three-part work, one photograph shows Peter Weibel holding a stone pole in his hands with the inscription »Diese Last ist schwerer als ich halten kann« [»This load is heavier than I can bear«]. In a second photograph, a girl stands behind a stone pole with the same text. Underneath the two images lies the engraved stone itself. With this work Weibel shows that the truth value of photography is variable and depends both on its context and on the object represented. While the sentence written on the stone pole is correct for the girl, it is not correct for the first photograph with Weibel. The result is a photographic paradox in which Weibel points to the difference between image and reality. In contrast to most photographers of his time, Weibel sees the quality of photography in the possibility of creating its own reality and not in the faithful depiction of external reality.